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If you abase yourself, people respect you less because you behave in a way that shows that someone else has complete power over you.

The word abject emphasizes a very bad situation or quality and makes it even worse.

An acolyte is someone who serves a leader as a devoted assistant or believes in the leader’s ideas.

If you acquiesce to something, you allow something to happen or you do something that someone wants without putting up a struggle or voicing your own concerns.

An adherent is a supporter or follower of a leader or a cause.

Adulation is praise and admiration for someone that includes more than he or she deserves, usually for the purposes of flattery.

An autonomous person makes her own decisions without being influenced by anyone else; an autonomous country or organization is independent and has the power to govern itself.

Blandishments are words or actions which are pleasant and complimentary, intended to persuade someone to do something via a use of flattery.

If someone is described as having a bristling personality, it means that he is either easily offended or is annoyed and/or angry.

Someone who is contumacious is purposely stubborn, contrary, or disobedient.

If you behave with deference towards someone, you show her respect and accept her opinion or decision, especially because she has an important position.

A dissident is someone who disagrees publicly with a government, especially in a country where this is not allowed.

Something that is divisive is likely to cause arguments between people.

An entourage is a group of assistants, servants, and other people who tag along with an important person.

To fawn over someone is to be extremely nice to her in an insincere way because you want her to like you or give you something.

If someone is fractious he is easily upset or annoyed over unimportant things.

If someone is implacable she is very stubbornly reacting to a situation because of strong feelings which cause her not to change.

Someone who is incorrigible has bad habits or does bad things and is unlikely to ever change; this word is often used in a humorous way.

An irascible person becomes angry very easily.

When you kowtow to another person, you flatter her excessively or act in a very submissive way to please her.

If you describe someone as a lackey, you feel that person follows someone’s orders completely without ever openly questioning them.

A laudatory article or speech expresses praise or admiration for someone or something.

A minion is an unimportant person who just obeys the orders of someone else and usually does unskilled or boring tasks.

If you are obsequious you try so hard to please someone that it does not appear nor is sincere.

If you say someone is obstreperous you think that he or she is noisy, unruly, and difficult to control.

A recalcitrant animal or person is difficult to control and refuses to obey orders even after stiff punishment.

Refractory people deliberately don’t obey someone in authority and so are difficult to deal with or control.

A restive person is not willing or able to keep still or be patient and is becoming difficult to control, especially because she is bored or dissatisfied.

If you say that someone is servile, you don’t respect him because he is too obedient, too agreeable, and too willing to do anything for another person.

Something that is specious seems to be good, sound, or correct but is actually wrong or fake.

If you are subservient, you are too eager and willing to do what other people want, and often put your own wishes aside.

If you are supine, you are lying on your back with your face upward.

An unctuous person acts in an overly deceptive manner that is obviously insincere because he wants to convince you of something.

In the Middle Ages, a vassal was a worker who served a lord in exchange for land to live on; today you are a vassal if you serve another, and are largely controlled by her.

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Noun

sycophant

SIK-uh-fant

Context

The seemingly harmless public official was clearly a self-serving sycophant who flattered superiors to obtain favors. This lying sycophant or puppet spoke empty praises to anyone who would hear him for the purpose of making those people think well of him so he, in turn, could gain power. This sycophant used such an excessive array of false compliments that he at long last wormed his way into a leadership position.